This invention relates to poultry houses for raising domesticated fowl and, more particularly, concerns a poultry house ring confinement system and method for raising young domesticated turkeys.
Typically, domesticated turkeys are raised commercially by hatching the chicks at a hatchery, transporting the one-day-old chicks to brooder houses holding, for example, twenty-one thousand chicks per brooder house, and brooding these chicks for about six weeks. Next, the brooded chicks are transferred to confinement houses where the hens are kept for about fourteen weeks or until the hens reach about fourteen pounds each and the toms are kept for about sixteen weeks or until the toms reach approximately twenty-four pounds each. Then, the hens and toms are transferred to a poultry processing plant where they are readied for market.
Conventional brooder houses contain a large number of brood heaters, one or more feed lines, and a large number of watering devices. The brood heaters, feed lines, and watering devices are attached to cables which are driven by winches in the ceiling of the brooder house for raising and lowering these items between raised storage positions up near the ceiling of the house and lowered operative positions near or on the floor of the house.
The brood heaters are kept very close to the floor so as to be close to the young turkeys during the first six to eight days of the brood cycle in order to keep the young chicks alive. During the warm summer months, the brood heaters can be shut off and raised to an inoperative stored position up near the ceiling of the house after about the first six or eight days of brooding. During the colder months, the brood heaters are operated as space heaters and raised to about one or more feet from the house floor during the remaining five weeks of brooding. A typical brooder house, for example, 450 feet in length and 40 feet in width would include two rows of brood heaters, each row including twenty-six heaters, and extending along the length of the house.
For the first six to eight days of brooding, young turkeys are customarilay kept close to the brood heaters by temporary brooder confinement structures constructed of either cardboard or masonite. Such conventional brooder confinement structures are, for example, cardboard ring-like structures having curved ends which prevent the young chicks from bunching up in a corner. These conventional brooder confinement structures are temporary and disposable in as much as they are constructed on site for use during the first six to eight days of brooding and then thrown away. Set up of these temporary disposable brooder confinement structures is time-consuming and requires that the set up of a brooder house takes, for example, four or more hours for a brooder house having a total of fifty-two brood heaters requiring twenty-six of these structures to be constructed and set up around the other brood house equipment.
A typical brooder house set up scenario would include first raising all the brood heaters, watering equipment, and feed lines up toward the ceiling of the house, applying a layer of particulate matter, such as saw dust, on the floor of the brooder house, lowering the feed lines to their operative position on the covered floor of the house, lowering the waterers to their operative position on the covered floor of the house, lowering the brood heaters to their operative position near the covered floor of the house, constructing in situ a number of brooder confinement structures, each structure surrounding one or more brood heaters and as many feeders and waterers as possible. In six to eight days, each of these temporary brooder confinement structures must be removed from the brooder house and disposed of. The removal of these structures is time consuming and takes approximately three or more hours.
As such, the conventional brooder process involving the use of conventional temporary brooder confinement structures which are only used during the first six to eight days of a single brooder cycle is time consuming, wasteful, and costly in that new temporary brooder confinement structures are constructed during each brooder cycle. Attempts at washing and disinfecting these brooder confinement structures for storage and reuse have been to no avail since structures made of cardboard or masonite are not adapted for easy and effective cleaning and do not transport and store well due to their flimsy and weak structure.
In light of the foregoing, the need exists for an improved brooder house system and method which is quickly set up and dismantled, is easily cleansed and disinfected, and does away with conventional temporary brooder confinement structures.